My brief synopsis of the Santa Monica teach-in 2/27 [View All]

[BlueTarheel]

First of all, there are some incredibly passionate, optimistic intelligent people working on election reform. It was such an inspiring day. I feel so much more empowered now than before. The meeting lasted almost four hours. I’m a little tired, but I’ll type as much as I can remember for now.

If they have any of these teach-ins in your area, I highly recommend going. The speakers detailed the problems of 2000 and 2004, which was depressing, but they were also inspirational of what we can do to work for a better system for next time. There was a real sense of optimism that I haven't felt since before Nov. 2nd. To focus on creating positive change.

The church was full with quite a few people standing at the back. There were several cameras video taping, too. The audience was all ages, races, men and women. Most people were really fired up.

Bob Fitrakis was the first to speak. He went into detail about the lawsuits, Blackwell and a laundry list of all the dirty tricks that occurred Ohio. Really disgusting stuff. He was such a passionate speaker and is still fighting in Ohio. He told us that anything he said could be used against him in court. But that didn't stop him from openly discussing the abuses of Ohio's SOS. He’s a tough, smart guy.

I met him afterwards and told him I was Greek, too, and he told me that the Greek press has reached out to him and interviewed him several times. I am so happy to hear that the news is spreading to the International community more than I thought. They know that we know and that we’re doing something about it.

Maxine Waters spoke and thanked everyone for not letting this issue die and to keep on working towards election reform. She went into great detail of how the black ministers have been targeted by the right wing. I can’t remember the exact name of the group/organization but they had meetings telling them that they’ll get more gov't money if they follow their guidelines i.e. preach to their congregations that Democrats are immoral because of abortion and gay rights. (yes, my jaw hit the ground) But these funds that they promised are not budgeted anywhere. That these ministers will actually end up fighting for less money with all of the proposed domestic budget cuts. She says she’s been trying to tell these ministers this for a while now and that they need to be focusing on feeding the poor, educating children, etc. the real moral values.

Blair Bobier was great, too. He spoke about the Ohio recount and how they just didn’t follow the law. They’re now trying to get a 2nd recount and are waiting for the courts to give the okay to proceed.

They didn’t mention the new Kerry/Edwards sanctions. Any time Kerry’s name came up, it was mostly to bash him.

All the speakers spoke of how the grassroots movement was to thank for the recounts, challenges, and the awareness of the problem. They all were encouraging us to keep doing it. Keep communicating with each other and to keep spreading the news. To really get involved and to keep showing up.

The Kevin Shelley situation was mentioned briefly. Mostly that a lot of SOS's across the country may have used the HAVA funds inappropriately. They didn't say that Shelley was guilty of that, but that it was a possibility. But that what we need to do is to send the new SOS McPherson letters with suggestions of what we want in our elections.

Brad from Brad blog was there and gave a short history of how his blog evolved into what it is now. He was a great example of how one person can really spread the news and encouraged us to think of how powerful we can be with this issue if we work together. He says to check out velvetrevolution.us where they're targeting the voting machine companies demanding reform. Check out this link: http://www.velvetrevolution.us/Campaigns/DV4D/

Bev Harris was there and spoke about a ton of different issues with the machines and the owners of the Diebold, ES&S, and Triad. Her point was to educate everyone, including conservatives, too. Not to make it a partisan issue. It's an issue for every American to get involved in. To have transparent elections period.

I'm sure the streaming videos will be up soon and I recommend watching. I'll post more later.